Epidotes

In Greek mythology, Epidotes (Ancient Greek: Ἐπιδώτης) was a divinity who was worshipped at Lacedaemon, and averted the anger of Zeus Hicesius (Greek: Ζευς Ικέσιος) for the crime committed by the Spartan general Pausanias.[1]

Epidotes, meaning the "liberal giver" or "bountiful", occurs also as an epithet of other divinities, such as Zeus at Mantineia and Sparta,[2] and of Hypnos and Oneiros at Sicyon, who had a statue in the temple of Asclepius there, which represented them in the act of sending a lion to sleep,[3] and lastly of the beneficent gods, to whom a second-century senator, Antoninus, built a sanctuary at Epidaurus.[4]

  1. ^ Pausanias, 3.17.8 (cited by Schmitz)
  2. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 8.9.1; Hesychius s.v. (cited by Schmitz)
  3. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.10.3 (cited by Schmitz)
  4. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.27.7 (cited by Schmitz)